Monday, April 25, 2011

The students are using these graphic organizers to help them write animal facts.

The student used the tree map to write 3 facts about frogs.

Here is a circle map we created. I read several books about jaguars then typed up some facts from the books. The children took turns picking a fact from a bag and read the fact before it was added to the circle map.

This student wrote sentences about jaguars using the circle map as a resource.

Here's another circle map.

Notice this student added some asking sentences in their snake writing. "Frog"ulous!!!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Jungle JumbleThe children practiced subtraction by taking animals away in the jungle.

Spotty AdditionThe student spins the spinner and counts out that many 2-sided counters. The student tosses the counters and records the answer.

Making jaguars for our jungle.

To review fractions we folded a coffee filter in half, then fourths, and finally eighths. We dipped the pointed end in blue liquid water color and the other end in black liquid water color.

This is what it looks like when it's dry. We scrunched up the middle then added a pipe cleaner for the body. It's a Morpho butterfly!

Can you see three fluttering in the tree?

Here's a butterfly pocket chart for shared reading. The children will take turns creating a pattern. If you notice there are several ways to interpret the butterfly pattern on the pocket chart. It can be read as an ABC pattern if you are looking at the colors. It can be read as an AAB pattern if you are looking at the design on the wings. It can be read as an ABB pattern if you look at the butterfly's actions - resting or flying.

This is another pocket chart we are reading at shared reading time. As we learn about the animals in the rain forest we will add the animals to the pocket chart. We will then take a picture with our camera and illustrate the photo. We are reviewing nouns, adjectives and verbs with this activity.

This is what the camera looks like.

Here's some samples of our illustrated photographs and writings.

Here's one of the student's poison dart frogs. After the students made their dart frog they picked a domino and created a subtraction problem using the dots.

The students found 3 V's. I had them make 3 groups of 3and add the groups.

This was a pocket chart poem we read at shared reading time. We then added the poem to our P.I.G. Books. After this student wrote what hatched from her eggs, she illustrated the poem and wrote about it.

Four Z's were found in this poem. Since we've been learning about fractions I asked the students to draw a circle, a square, and a rectangle. I wanted them to divide the shapes into 4 equal pieces and color 1/4 of each shape.

The children found 17 y's in the Yo-Yo poem. I asked them how many tens and ones were in the number 17. They tallied the results.This was a review for place value and tally marks.

For The Queen poem the students found 2 Q's. I asked them to write by 2's beginning at number 50 and write as high as they could or until they ran out of space.

The students decorate their egg carton for the egg hunt. Each child finds a dozen eggs. We discuss that a dozen equals twelve. I've been doing egg hunts like this for years. It eliminates the drama of some finding more than others; everyone finds fair shares. When each child finds their dozen he or she can help their friends find eggs or sit down and see what is in their eggs.

This game involves 2 spinners. One to determine the color and one to determine how many. The students always like a game even more when food is involved so I chose fruit loops. The children were really excited about the 2 spinners. Some of them even tried to make their butterfly symmetrical.

I created this game to review fractions and to go along with our rainforest unit. The student spins the spinner and colors that fraction on a frog. The game is over when all froggy fractions are colored. The children had to say the fraction the spinner landed on. One child kept saying "seconds" for one half...too cute, but had to be corrected of course :)

The object of the game is to get home. The student picks a card and counts the dots on the ladybug and moves to the ladybug with that many spots. There is a ladybug on a leaf card that helps you move forward, but watch out for the fly away ladybug card. That card sends you back to start :(

The student used skittles to make addition and subtraction number sentences. The number sentence circled is the one the student illustrated. Each student was given a different amount of skittles to work with.

About Me

My career has been enriched by the opportunity to start two successful Pre-K programs and owning and operating an early learning school for eleven years. Currently, I have left the classroom to have more time to create resources that will inspire enthusiasm for learning in a fun way for both the teacher and the student.